Thanks Social Workers...

-


 This week marks National School Social Worker week throughout our country. The first full week of March has been dedicated to school social workers through the efforts of the School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA). The week is an opportunity for schools, communities, and partners to acknowledge and recognize the impactful work that our social workers do to support students, families, and their communities. This week-long celebration should emphasize school social work contributions such as focusing on the “whole child”, linking families to community resources, being a valuable voice as part of the school’s multi-disciplinary team, and advocating for the profession of school social work. The theme for National School Social Work Week 2023 is “We Rise.” During the school year, school social workers are confronted with challenges, heightened anxieties, and anticipated difficulties. However, these individuals face these challenges with strength and resilience. Our team of social workers rise up to support their students, families, and school communities. School social workers rise to share hope. They rise to listen and understand. They rise to challenge inequities. They rise to support all students. Each and every one of them is a vital part of our district's and community's mental health support process and team. Given everything that our students, families, and staff have been through in recent years, there is no shortage of need for the work that these folks perform each and every week. This week, take a moment to rise up with them and thank them for everything that they are doing to help our school community. 

Congratulations Athletes

Congratulations to all of our Winter sports scholar-athletes and teams! The NYSPHSAA has released the list of scholar-athletes and teams for the Winter 2022-2023 season. Our Scholar Teams for the Winter 2022-2023 season include: Girls Varsity Bowling coached by Bryan Rondeau, Boys Varsity Ice Hockey coached by Jason Nowicki, Alpine Ski Co-Ed coached by Melissa O'Rourke, Girls Varsity Indoor Track coached by Nick Jeror, Boys Varsity Swimming and Diving coached by Michelle Browne, Girls Varsity Volleyball coached by Pete Keoviengsamay, and Boys Varsity Volleyball coached by Patrick Herron. In total, across all sports, we had 79 students achieve the Scholar-Athlete distinction. Individual awards are given to any student who has a cumulative GPA of 90% or higher; while team awards are given to teams that have 75% of the roster achieving a GPA of 90% or better. 

DCIP Survey

The district is currently seeking feedback on our District's Comprehensive Improvement Plan, Priority One, which is: The Rome City School District commits to providing an engaging, relevant, and inclusive curriculum for all students. We ask that you please take a few minutes to provide your feedback by taking the following survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdEeC8U79MBkxZ2YwrKY-WHerZaagCtOj1IdRozLUI0lFBlJw/viewform.

Buddies Only!

The Rome YMCA is starting a new program for students and families that are interested in building positive social skills. The group is geared to helping students and families in navigating school stressors such as bullying by providing a safe, supportive, and structured setting to share their experiences with common challenges school students cope with daily. For more information about this group, please see their flier here: https://www.romecsd.org/article/1024007.

SELSI Survey - Round 2

We are currently conducting our second round of the Social-Emotional Learning Skills Inventory survey for our students PreK-12 for the 2022-2023 school year. Last year we had tremendous success with this survey in learning where our students stand related to social/emotional needs. The goal is to learn more about adult perceptions as they relate to a student's resiliency and ensure that we as adults are not missing cues from students that are in need of social/emotional support. In the end, we as a community will be better equipped to support our students as we will have a better understanding of their needs. Parents are encouraged to take the survey as well to provide input on their own perceptions/beliefs of their students. To complete the survey, please use this link: www.surveymonkey.com/r/SELSI-W2023. You will need your student's ID number to participate which can be found in your parent portal account. The survey will be available until March 10.

Kindergarten Registration

Kindergarten registration for the 2023-2024 school year will occur during the week of March 6 - March 10, at each individual elementary school. More information on the registration process and documents required for registration can be found at https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/2645/RCSD/2773814/2023-24_Kindergarten_Registration_Flyer.pdf.  

Popular posts from this blog

It Takes A Village...

-
Image
 We all know the old phrase, "it takes a village to raise a child." One can reflect on the phrase and find a few different ways to interpret its meaning, however, it cannot be argued that when groups of people work together to help their children grow, success is more likely. To me, I view this phrase as referencing that there is someone within every community that a child can connect with to help them feel a part of their school and/or community. It may not be their classroom teacher or their principal. It may be a bus driver, a coach, a teaching assistant, secretary, custodian, food service worker, music teacher, art teacher, computer specialist, monitor, etc. The list can go on and on. Why mention this? Well, currently, one of the largest and most important educational research projects in our nation's history is occurring with some of the leading educational experts researching what education needs to be by the year 2025. Education 2025 is producing information that m
Read more

Finish Strong...

-
Image
It is that time of year where many schools, teachers, and students want to "coast" to the finish line. A lot like that NFL team that has their playoff birth locked up weeks before the end of the season so they start resting players to avoid potential injury as the regular season comes to an end; some schools have traditionally modeled this mentality. Difference being is that we are in a race, not a season. In a race, if you let up at the end, your final outcome/product will suffer. Even if you are in first place in the race, you don't slow down as you approach the finish line do you? You don't see the jockey on the thoroughbred pulling on the reins so that the team doesn't set a time record. Those thoughts would be unthinkable. So why do we pull up the flaps at the end of the school year on our kids' learning opportunities. Yes, the weather is nice. Yes, it's been a long year. Yes, we've just made it through State testing and AP testing. But, we only
Read more

I Had A Dream...

-
Image
Once upon a time, when we all began our careers or started a new position/school, we had dreams. Dreams of what we wanted to accomplish, dreams we wanted to see our students accomplish, dreams we wanted to see our school communities achieve. Throughout my travels though, I have seen more adults tell students that should lower their expectations and downsize their dreams. Unfortunately, I would say that the ratio of adults encouraging students and adults discouraging students is close to 1:1 in my career. I ask, would you be where you are today without someone throughout your educational life encouraging you to pursue your dreams? As with many things in our schools, we need to focus on the positives that are happening and capitalize on them. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream for our country, and while his dream was related to equal rights and oppression, his intended message of having a dream and working tirelessly to achieve it can be applied universally in society. Recently,
Read more